It started with just the typical being back in town stuff: visiting friends, going to the DMV, applying for jobs, interviewing, etc. Then everything sort up picked up steam. I got hired to substitute teach for two school districts and (still) have my hands full with all the paperwork, fingerprinting and drug testing, and waiting for schools to start (the end of this month) before I get any sort of paycheck.
Next, this week I started an internship in Pasadena for a dream job opportunity: I'm an editorial assistant for a fiction and poetry publishing press and their imprints! It's unpaid (ugh) but it is exactly what I've always thought that I'd want to do and figured now was the only chance I had to take this risk. The fact that I'm getting this opportunity with fiction and poetry is amazing too, and not that I have to pay my dues with a cookbook press or finance journal. I have already learned SO MUCH about the entire process: from production (order of all the galley pages, typesetting and sizes, ISBN numbers, etc) to page assembling, editing and proofreading, etc etc! I already feel super cool by asking if we've verified that the left and right pages track, checked to see if the illustrations should be recto or verso and eliminated all the orphans and widows from the laid-out galley text. Today I signed off on my first manuscript for production and began going through the slosh pile, meaning that I get to read all the submissions and queries that people mail in and decide what should be rejected or passed along to the managing editor. AND, next week I'll begin copyediting a book of poetry. Scary! Here's how cute even the lobby is:
The traffic coming home from Pasadena three days a week is cumbersome, but the experience is worth it for a few months.
Additionally, I am also working with a Santa Monica-based literary magazine that is Kickstarter-funded, so while I'm currently just volunteering, after August 25th I'll be able to be on staff for stipend. So I've been really excited about these opportunities in my field of choice.
Lastly, I've started taking improv classes with the Groundlings in LA. I was doing improv in NYC, and doing really well, and it was one of the best things I'd ever done with my life (SO MUCH FUN and also, therapeutic!) so every Wednesday I schlep myself to Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles for 3 hours of fun.
And inbetween all that, there's been sooo much going on: taking Dexter to the dog park with Heather, Disneyland with my cousin Brianna, watching Kathleen compete (and win in the women's division!) of Disneyland employee canoe races, seeing friends in Riverside, wine tasting in Temecula and having fun in San Diego (including lunch with grandma, Aunt Judee, Uncle Carl and Aunt Frances!) enjoying Los Angeles neighborhoods when I'm around, and playing with Khaleesi Del Taco!
Oh, and here's the saddest story you will hear all day: This week, I was heading down to Santa Monica for an interview on Tuesday. I find a block of parking. READ ALL THE SIGNS I tell myself. There are two signs. 2-Hour Parking Mon-Fri. (Fine). MONDAY: No Parking 2-4. I must have read them seven times, telling myself, "Today is Tuesday, so no problem with 2-4, and just park for 2 hours. Today is Tuesday." I go in to the interview, come back out after an hour, check on the car, read the signs again. "Today is Tuesday, so only two hour parking, you have another hour." I go walking along the Santa Monica boardwalk, come back in 45 minutes to see a ticket. I was furious! I READ ALL THOSE SIGNS A THOUSAND TIMES!!! I am staring at the ticket perplexed when a guy my age walks by. "They got you, huh?" he asked. "Yes!" I shouted. "And why? What did I do wrong??" he looked up at the signs. "It's the Monday thing," he said. OHHHH MYYYYY GODDDD. It was Monday the whole time!!! I was CONVINCED it was Tuesday. That's what unemployment does to you!!
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